Dousman Hotel Water Street at Fisher Street St. Feriole Island ...

Dousman Hotel
Water Street at Fisher Street
St. Feriole Island
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
HABS No. WI-291
Uflb^
PHOTOGRAPHS
WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA
Historic American Buildings Survey
National Park Service
Rocky Mountain Regional Office
Department of the Interior
P.O. Box 25287
Denver, Colorado 80225

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 1)
Location:
DOUSMAN HOTEL
Water Street at Fisher Street.
Accessor's Block 24, \Lots 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, U
12, 13, and 14, also part of Lots 2, 3, and 4,
Prairie du Chien, Crawford County, Wisconsin.
IY/S
H
UTM:
Quad:
15.649940 / 4768125
Prairie du Chien
Present Owner:
Prairie Petroleum Products, Inc,
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Present Occupant:
Vacant
Present Use:
Vacant
Statement of
Significance:
The Dousman Hotel, built 1864-65, is associated with
Prairie du Chien's role in post-Civil War transportation
on the upper Mississippi. When its builder,
The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad, extended a
line to Prairie du Chien's "Lower Town" in 1857, it
marked the beginning of a prosperous relationship
with steamboat, barge and packet companies that
plied the river from St. Louis to St. Paul. In the
mid-1860 1 s, the railroad and river lines effected a
major relocation of their activities north to Prairie
du Chien's St. Feriole Island; the program included
not only construction of railroads, shipping facilities,
a warehouse and a grain elevator, but also
construction of the Dousman Hotel.
The hotel was strategically located on tracts near
the steamboat landings, in order to serve both rail
and river passengers. By including a depot, waiting
room and ticket office on the hotel's first floor,

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 2)
Statement of
Significance:
(continued)
the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad ensured itself
a steady clientele of travelers, as persons entering
to make travel arrangements were thereby encouraged
to patronize the establishment's well-appointed
dining and sleeping accommodations. Not least among
the Dousman's patrons were emigrants on their way to
seek land in the trans-Mississippi West, principally
Northern Iowa and Minnesota. They appear to have
come to Prairie du Chien in such numbers that an
"emigrant depot/ still extant, was built nearby to
augment the hotel's own waiting rooms. With the
extension of rail lines north from Prairie du Chien
and other river communities in the mid-1880's, the
town's importance as a transshipment point declined.
The Dousman Hotel, however, remained a popular
establishment until after the turn of the century.
Today it shares St. Feriole Island with other
structural artifacts of Prairie du Chien's history,
among them an American Fur Company warehouse and
the Italianate-style mansion built for Oane Dousman,
widow of Hercules Dousman.
The Dousman Hotel in its heyday exemplified the kind
of establishments frequently built by railroads or
private individuals to accommodate rail passengers
in the late nineteenth century. These hotel/eating
houses were commonly located near rail platforms or
depots, and at transportation transfer points, as
was the case in prairie du Chien. The Dousman was
of particular interest because it originally
included depot and waiting room facilities, as well
as sleeping and dining accommodations. However,,
substantial changes to the structure during this
century have eliminated most of the features which
embodied these functions.

Dousman Hotel
HABS NO. WI-291
(Page 3)
DOUSMAN HOTEL
I. Historical Information
A. Physical History
1. Date of Erection: 1864-85
2. Architect: unknown
3. Original and subsequent owners:
The following is an incomplete chain of title to the property on
which the Dousman Hotel is located: Lots 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, and 14, also part of Lots 2, 3, and 4, in Block 24, according to the
plat of the subdivision of original main village lots of the private
land claims at Prairie du Chien. Reference is to the Recorder of Deeds,
Crawford County, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
1864 Warranty Deed, dated 27 April 1864, recorded 28 April 1864,
in Volume 17 of Deeds, page 528.
-Lawrence F. Case and Emily F. Case to Milwaukee and Prairie
du Chien Railway Company (Lots 2 and 7).
1864 Warranty Deed, dated 27 April 1864, recorded 27 April 1864,
in Volume 17 of Deeds, page 527.
-Frederick 0. Miller to Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien
Railway Company (Lots 1 and 8).
1864 Warranty Deed, dated 27 April 1864, recorded 27 April 1864,
in Volume 17 of Deeds, page 326.
-Thomas A. Savage and Elvira A. Savage to the Milwaukee and
Prairie du Chien Railway Company (west 1/2 of Main Village
Lot No. 17, containing 13 lots in Blocks 22, 23, 24).
1926 Bill of Sale, dated 31 December 1926, recorded 3 May 1937,
in Volume L of Miscellaneous, page 516.
-Receivers of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific
Railroad Company to Estate of Joseph H, Zimmerman.
1928 Indenture, dated 20 January 1928, recorded in Volume L of
Miscellaneous, page 518.

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HABS Mo. WI-291
{Page 4)
-E. C. Amman {Executor, Estate of Joseph H. Zimmerman) to L.
Cornelius.
1928 Indenture, dated 1 March 1928, recorded in Volume L of
Miscellaneous, page 519.
-L. Cornelius to Wanamingo Ferry Company.
1937 Indenture, dated 3 May 1937, recorded in Volume L of
Miscellaneous, page 520.
-Wanamingo Ferry Company to William D. Carroll.
1937 Court Order, dated 5 March 1937, recorded 3 May 1937, in
Volume L of Miscellaneous, page 515.
-Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company to
William D. Carroll.
1937 Deed, dated 8 April 1937, recorded 3 May 1937, in Volume 148
of Deeds, page 539.
-Trustees of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific
Railroad Company to William D. Carroll.
1938 Warranty Deed, dated 19 February 1938, recorded 21 February
1938, in Volume 143 of Deeds, page 468.
-William D. Carroll and wife to Carroll Packing Company.
1946 Warranty Deed, dated 1 July 1946, recorded 5 July 1946, in
Volume 167 of Deeds, page 43.
-Carroll Packing Company to Oscar Mayer & Company.
1955 Warranty Deed, dated 21 July 1955, recorded 27 July 1955, in
Volume 167 of Deeds, page 139.
-Oscar Mayer & Company to Wisconsin Farmco Service
Cooperative.
1961 Warranty Deed, dated 21 January 1961, recorded 16 May 1961,
in Volume 167 o^ Deeds, page 203.
-Wisconsin Farmco Service Cooperative to Speaker Products
Corporation.
1969 Warranty Deed, dated 26 July 1969, recorded 28 July 1969, in
Volume 251 of Deeds, page 289.
-Speaker Products Corporation to First State Savings Bank,
McGregor, Iowa.

Oousman Hotel
HA8S No. WI-291
(Page 5)
1972 Warranty Deed, dated 2 August 1972, recorded 7 August 1972,
in Volume 272 of Deeds, page 264.
-First State Savings Bank to Prairie Petroleum Products,
Inc.
4. Builder, contractor, supplier: unknown
5. Original Plans and Construction:
See Section II (Architectural Information) below.
Section II
focuses on the physical characteristics of the Dousmah Hotel before it
was remodeled as a meat packing plant in the late 1930s.
Information
for Section II has been drawn primarily from field investigation and
historical photographs (see Section III.B), as well as other documentary
evidence.
6. Alterations and Additions:
(Date unknown, but probably between c. 1924 and 1940):
story addition was made at the south end of the main block.
A one-
It utilized
yellow brick similar to that of the original structure, but the mortar
joints are less finely pointed.
The main (west) facade features five
tall, round-arched openings with corbeled voussoirs, similar to those of
the hotel's frontispiece.
At the south end was a tall brick chimney,
with two round-arched windows to the right.
The remains of a brick
interior wall, plus another wall of hollow clay tile, are located within
the now roofless addition.
Beginning in 1939-1940, the hotel was extensively modified for use
as a meat packing plant.
The first and second floors were gutted and
rebuilt, and some third floor rooms in the main block were remodeled as
well.
In the rear wing, above the former dining hall, second and third

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 6)
floor walls, floors, and ceilings were removed to create a single large
room two stories high.
The third floor trusses, however, remain in
place.
The kitchen wing was removed, leaving the foundation which was
incorporated into a large kill room that, along with an elevator shaft,
fully occupies the re-entrant angle formed by the main block and east
wing.
On the south end of the kill room is a two-story, shed-roofed
structure covered with corrugated metal.
Wrapped around this feature,
in an l-plan, is a concrete yard, originally sheltered with a roof on
wooden posts, where livestock were kept prior to slaughter.
Along the
east side of this yard are long, low gable-roofed frame sheds, with
horizontal tongue-and-groove siding, that contained livestock pens.
East of the kill room, and connected to the latter by a short hyphen, is
a concrete block structure that appears to post-date the meat packing,
operations.
On the main (west) facade of the hotel is a three-bay
enclosed loading dock, of yellow and pink brick, concrete, and glazed
tile.
In addition to these changes, the original cornice, cupola, and
chimneys have been removed, and all original entrances bricked up.
The
front porch was removed, and a number of windows were either filled in,
reshaped and fitted with glass block, or simply boarded up.
Nearly all
hardware, all lighting and other fixtures, staircases, interior
shutters, and other furnishings have been removed.
The original room
arrangement is evident only on the third floor, and there only in the
main block.
In the east wing the room partitions, plus the ceiling of
the second floor, were removed, creating a single large room two stories

Oousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 7)
high.
The first floor and basement were completely renovated as cold
storage facilities.
In general, the hotel has experienced significant loss of
architectural integrity.
B. Historical Context
The Euro-American history of Prairie du Chien is traceable to at
least 1685, when French-Canadian fur trader Nicholas Perrot built a post
on St. Feriole Island from which to trade with the Mesquakie Indians.
Perrot's post was not long occupied, however, and a permanent post was
not built until 1781.
That post, established by traders Augustine Ange,
Pierre Antaya, Basil Giard, Michael Brisbois, and Pierre la Pointe,
became the nucleus of a small island village inhabited chiefly by the
French-Canadians and their Native American wives.1
During the War of 1812, Prairie du Chien became a focal point in
the struggle between British and American forces for control of the
upper Mississippi-Great Lakes region, its fur trade, and the allegiance
of its native inhabitants.
In June 1814, American troops erected a log
fort, named Ft. Shelby, near the village.
Ft. Shelby was captured by
the British with assistance from numerous fur traders the following
month and renamed Ft. McKay after a leader of the expedition.
With the
ultimate American victory in the war, Ft. McKay was abandoned and
subsequently burned.2
The United States established a firm military presence, however,
with construction of Ft. Crawford on St. Feriole Island in 1816.
During
the following years, the inhabitants of Prairie du Chien, still largely

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HABS NO. WI-291
(Page 8)
French-Canadian, were confirmed in their land titles, and the American
Fur Company established a major fur trade post near Ft. Crawford, with
Hercules Dousman as agent beginning in 1826.3
By the early 1840s, however, the locus of the fur trade had moved
to the upper Missouri and Rocky Mountain regions, and the need for a
military presence at Prairie du Chien began to decline as the upper
Mississippi region around Prairie du Chien became settled.
The village
entered a period of economic stagnation which lasted until 1857.4
That
year, Wisconsin's first railroad, the Milwaukee & Mississippi, completed
its line to Prairie du Chien.
The terminus, including a depot and
yards, was in Prairie du Chien's "Lowertown," a portion of the village
located on the mainland below St. Feriole Island, that had been laid out
by Alexander McGregor in 1836.5
The coming of the railroad produced Prairie du Chien's greatest
sustained economic boom, which lasted until about 1885.6
it began
somewhat shakily, as the Milwaukee & Mississippi in 1859 defaulted on
payment of interest on bonds and went bankrupt.
In 1861, however, a new
company, the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien, was organized to take over
the Milwaukee & Mississippi's operations, and the activity at Prairie du
Chien resumed.7
The town became a major center for transshipment.
Emigrants arrived here by train, then took ferries and steam packet
lines north or south to settle in Iowa and Minnesota.
Gradually, as
lands west of the Mississippi were brought under cultivation, steamboats
and barges brought agricultural products to Prairie du Chien for
shipment via rail to the East.8

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 9)
The principal beneficiaries of this activity were the inhabitants,
businessmen, and landowners of Prairie du Chien's Lowertown, to the
growing consternation of those who lived and held property on St.
Feriole Island and the "upper town," located on the mainland opposite
the island.
In an attempt to move^the center of economic activity
north, inhabitants of St. Feriole and the upper town offered money
subscriptions to the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien Railway Company, to
persuade the line to build a new depot on the island.9
Coincidentally,
there occurred in 1863 and early 1864 a period of very low water in the
Mississippi - so low, in fact, that many of the larger steamboats were
unable to reach the warehouse docks in Lowertown.10
By the late summer of 1863, the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien had
begun a major relocation of its facilities from Lowertown to St. Feriole
Island.
The program included first the construction of a new shipyard,
where steamboats and barges operating in connection with the railroad
could be built or repaired.11
By spring of 1864, a "mammoth" freight
depot and a grain elevator, "largest on the Mississippi," were in
operation on St. Feriole Island as well.12 Following the railroad's
lead, a number of local entrepreneurs arranged to move not only their
businesses but their buildings to St. Feriole Island and the upper
town.13
To complete the relocation project, the Milwaukee and Prairie du
Chien re-routed its rail line to the newly developed upper levee.
To
accommodate passengers, the railroad built a small complex of buildings
in the block of Water Street below Fisher Street, directly opposite the
ferry and packet landings.
This complex included a small "emigrant

depot," with attendant "baggage house" and express office, and a much
larger "general passenger depot," all connected by a wooden platform
extended along the railroad tracks.14
Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 10}
The "general passenger depot" was much more than the designation
suggested.
It was, rather, an establishment that included not only a
waiting room and ticket office, but also a news depot, a fully-equipped
"eating houses-over 50 hotel rooms, a women's parlor, and a card room
and saloon for male patrons.15
Construction of this all-purpose
facility was well underway by the spring of 1864.16
It was completed in
the spring of 1865, and was formally inaugurated on May 4 with a "grand
opening ball."17
Although the grouping of so many different functions
in a single building appears to have been somewhat unusual, the concept
of a hotel catering primarily, though by no means exclusively, to
railroad travelers, was not.
More than a few nineteenth century
railroads and local entrepreneurs took advantage of the inevitable
demand for eating and sleeping accommodations that developed, as
railroads expanded across the country, particularly in communities that
served as transshipment points and embarkation centers,18
The Milwaukee's Prairie du Chien Railroad's new hotel/depot
appears to have begun operations without a formal name, as none was
given in newspaper accounts even at the opening.
Subsequently, however,
the establishment was named the Dousman Hotel, by which it was known
ever after.
The name may have been bestowed around 1868, in honor of
Hercules L. Dousman who died that year.19
Although the steamer trade began to decline in the 1880s due to
improved rail service to St. Paul, Minnesota and the West, the Dousman

Hotel remained a popular and successful operation for many years.20
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HABS No. WI-291
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During the 1880s and 1890s, the Dousman Hotel maintained its status as a
well-known stopping place for tourists and honeymooners, chiefly due to
the efforts of its then, proprietor, Charles Hufschmidt.
Hufschmidt,
originally from Lansing, Iowa, began his career as an hotelier after
suffering financial reverses as a wheat broker and shipper.
In addition
to the Dousman, Hufschmidt also operated the Hufschmidt House at
McGregor, Iowa.21
one of Dousman's strongest features was its "table,"
at which duck was the specialty offered to favored guests of the
management.22
With Hufschmidt's death, around 1900, the popularity of the
Dousman gradually declined, and most of its patrons were drawn from
traveling salesmen and
"train gangs" and other railroad employees.23
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, which had acquired
the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien and its assets in 1874, went into
receivership in the 1920s.
The hotel and several nearby structures were
sold in 1926, although the land remained in railroad ownership.24
By
that time, the hotel was no longer in operation, as a Sanborn map from
1924 shows the first floor vacant and the upper floors used as
apartments.
During the early 1930s, these became tenements for local
inhabitants on relief or otherwise too poor to afford better quarters.25
In 1937 William D. Carroll, a former mayor of Prairie du Chien and
state legislator, purchased both the hotel and the lots on which it was
located.
In January 1939 he incorporated the Carroll Packing Company
and began a major conversion of the old hotel into a cold storage and
meat packing plant.26
in April of that year, the Armour Company of

Chicago agreed to lease the facility and operate it for five years.
Dousman Hotel
HABS NO. WI-291
(Page 12)
Under the terms of the agreement, the Carroll Packing Company completed
the remodeling effort, which included construction of a large kill room,
freight elevator, rendering plant, and tank house, plus conversion of
the first floor to a cold storage facility.27
After five years of operation, Armour decided not to renew its
lease, and in 1946 the plant was sold to Oscar Mayer & Company.
However, by 1952 Oscar Mayer was unable to obtain sufficient livestock
to keep the operation profitable, and was forced to lay off over 100
employees.28
j n 1955, Oscar Mayer sold the property to the Wisconsin
Farmco Service Cooperative.
Under this and subsequent owners, the
former hotel was used principally for storage.

Dousmarv Hotel
HABS Ho. WI-291
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FOOTNOTES
1 Constance M. Evans, Prairie du Chien and the Winneshiek (By the
Author, 1928), p. 2.
2 Violet D. Young, Illustrated Handbook of the Historic Home of
Hercules Dousman (By the Autnor, ly^bj, p. 4.
3 Ibid., pp. 3, 7.
4 Richard H. Zeitlin, Prairie du Chien: Urban Consolidation and
Decline 1858-1930 (St. Paul: U.S. Array Corps of Engineers, St. Paul
District, [1981]), p. 5.
5 Evans, Prairie du Chien and the Winneshiek, p. 4; and Peter L.
Scanlon, Prairie du cnien: Frencn, British, American (Menasha, WI: Geo.
Banta Publishing Company, 1937), p. 209.
6 Zeitlin, Prairie du Chien: Urban Consolidation, p. 5.
7 History of Crawford and Rich!and Counties, Wisconsin
(Springneia, IL: union puDiismng company, [J.UU4]J, p. 4U4; William F.
Raney, Wisconsin: A Story of Progress (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1940),
p. 185; and Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin During the
Civil War Decade (Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin,
1916), pp. 290-291.
8 Zeitlin, Prairie du Chien: Urban Consolidation, p. 6.
9 Scanlon, Prairie du Chien: French, British, American, p. 209.
10 John G. Gregory, ed., Southwestern Wisconsin: A History of Old
Crawford County (Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1932), p. 224; and Prairie du
Chien Courier, 6 August 1863.
11 Prairie du Chien Courier, 6 August 1863.
12 prairie du Chien Courier, 12 May 1864.
13 prairie du Chien Courier, 9 June 1864.
14 "plan of Depot Buildings at Prairie du Chien," drawing (c.1870)
on file at State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
15 Prairie du Chien Courier, 23 June 1864.
16 Prairie du Chien Courier, 26 May 1864.
i7 Prairie du Chien Courier, 4 May 1865.

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HABS No. WI-291
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18 some hotels were built by railroads; in Wisconsin, examples
included the Milwaukee Railway Hotel, erected in Madison in 1856, and
the Monona Hotel, a Madison establishment associated with the North
Western Line. (The Capital Times (Madison), 27 March 1953, newspaper
clipping file, university of Wisconsin Library, Platteville.) Many
others were built by local investors, such as the Ogden House, in
Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1868; and the Burtis-Kimball Hotel, Davenport,
Iowa in 1872-74. (Lucy Beall Graeme, National Register of Historic
Places nomination form for the Ogden Hotel [1976]; M.H. Bowers, National
Register of Historic Places nomination form for the Burtis-Kimball
Hotel, January 1979.) Ideally, these railroad hotels were located as
close to a depot or rail platform as possible. Failing this, other
arrangements could be made, as was the case with the Mondell House at
Prairie du Chien, which operated a free coach service to and from the
levee. (Prairie du Chien Courier, 10 September 1952, reprinted from 5
June 1877 issue.)
Although the great age of the passenger train and the railroad hotel
is long past, its legacy remains in hotels and motels catering to air
travelers. It is perhaps best exemplified by the O'Hare Hilton,
Chicago, which maintains special arrangements with the airlines to
handle stranded passengers, and which is accessible from the terminal
through specially constructed tunnels.
19 Dousman, born in 1800 on Mackinac Island, was a long-time
resident of Prairie du Chien, having come to the community in 1826 as an
agent for the American Fur Company. A consummate frontier entrepreneur,
Dousman gradually expanded the scope of his investments beyond the fur
trade into Mississippi River steamship and packet lines, real estate,
and ultimately, railroads. As a major shareholder in the Milwaukee and
Mississippi, Dousman was instrumental in bringing that line, the first
of Wisconsin's numerous railroads, into Prairie du Chien. At the time
of his death, Dousman had served four years on the Milwaukee & Prairie
du Chien's "Board of Supervisors." (Violet D. Young. Illustrated
Handbook, pp. 6-10; Prairie du Chien Courier, 16 June 1864.)
20 Gregory, Southwestern Wisconsin, p. 227; and Zeitlin, prairie du
Chien: Urban Consolidation, p. 13.
21 Fred A. Schrader, "A History of the Dousman Hotel," State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, [19573. (Typewritten.); Prairie du
Chien Courier, 10 September 1952; and Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, 3
September 1952.
22 prairie du Chien Courier, 10 September 1952; Fred A. Schrader, "A
History of Dousman Hotel;" and Interview with Mrs. Rudy Opat, Prairie du
Chien, Wisconsin, 20 March 1957.
23 Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, 3 September 1952; and Interview with
Mrs. Ruoy opat, 20 Marcn 1957.

24 Bill of Sale, dated 31 December 1926, recorded 3 May 1937, in
Volume L, Miscellaneous, p. 516, Crawford County Recorder, Prairie du
Chien, Wisconsin.
25 Dupuque Telegraph-Herald, 3 September 1952.
26 Prairie du Chien Courier, 10 September 1952.
27 Prairie du Chien Courier, 4 April 1939.
28 Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, 3 September 1952.
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II.
Architectural Information
A. General Statement
1. Architectural Character: The Dousman Hotel was a large
building in the Italianate style serving the combined functions of
railway depot, restaurant and hotel.
It was prominently situated along
the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad tracks, across from
the principal steamboat landing on Prairie du Chien's St. Feriole
Island.
2. Condition of Fabric: The hotel appears structurally
sound, although deteriorated through lack of maintenance over many
decades.
Portions of the first floor have collapsed, and other floors
must be treated with caution. The building has been extensively altered
(see Section I.A.6).
B. Description of Exterior
1. Overall Dimensions: The hotel, three stories on a full
basement, was built with an L-shaped plan, consisting of a nine-bay main
block fronting Water Street and the river, and a ten-bay rear wing
fronting on Fisher Street.
At the east end of the wing, on the south
side, was a two-story kitchen wing.
At the south end of the main block,
on the east side, was a small two-and-a-half story pavilion, with a onestory
section attached to the east wall.
2. Foundations: The foundation is of local limestone. The
exterior is faced with large ashlar blocks witn pecked finish for five
courses, with coursed quarry faced stone below.
Quoins are set off as
large blocks with quarry faces and chiseled margins.
The water table

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consists of a narrow band of limestone slabs slightly projecting beyond
the main wall plane.
3. Walls: The walls are laid up 1n a yellow brick, called
"Milwaukee" brick, probably because it was made in that city, with
stretcher bond on the exterior.29
The main block features a five-bay
central entrance frontispiece that is very slightly advanced beyond the
main wall plane, and is surmounted by a shallow gable.
All corners of
the building are quolned with slightly corbeled courses of yellow brick.
4. Structural System, Framing: The exterior walls are
load-bearing; interior walls are framed with studs to which nailed lath
and plaster was then applied.
The first floor appears to have been
supported by square, probably brick, piers in the basement.
The second
floor was probably supported by transverse floor beams inserted into
pockets in the outer walls.
The third floor is carried on a system of
modified queen-post trusses, reinforced with vertical iron tie rods,
which are enclosed within room partitions.
These trusses are hung from
very large king-post trusses in the attic, which also support the
single-rafter system of the shallow hipped roof.
The king-post trusses
are fashioned from 12 x 12's with mortise-and-tenon joints and vertical
iron tie rods.
The vertical rods of each queen-post truss extend
through the bottom chord of the respective king-post truss, and are
bolted in place.
The diagonal member of each queen-post truss is in
turn held in place beneath the bottom chord of the king-post truss with
diagonal rods bolted at each end.
The ends of the king-post trusses are
inserted into pockets near the top of the exterior walls.
In the angle
formed by the main block and rear wing, there is but a single king-post

truss, which is situated or. a diagonal running northeast-southwest.
Rafters and attic floor joists appear to be butted into the walls, as
there is no plate.
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The rafters are nailed in place, and at the top are
simply butted and nailed against a plank serving as the ridge pole.
5. Porches: Originally there was a one-story wooden porch
extending the full width of the frontispiece.
The extremely shallow
hipped roof had a broad, molded cornice with widely-spaced ornamental
brackets.
Like the frontispiece, it was divided into five bays, with
the end bays marking the entrances.
These end bays were distinguished
by tall round arches flanked by narrow five-light sidelights.
The porch
posts, on low pedestals, had a slight batter and recessed panels on each
face.
Stair and porch railings lacked spindles, and instead displayed
long, lozenge-shaped "cut-outs."
Square posts at the bottom of each
stair railing featured bulbous finials.
The entire porch appears to
have been gaily painted, and at times was furnished with striped awnings
hung across the three central bays.
On the north side of the building, at the second bay from the west
end, was a short flight of wooden steps to a door leading into a parlor.
6. Chimneys: The hotel was furnished with numerous, rather
short chimneys set near the roof edges.
They appear to have been of the
same yellow brick as the walls, and featured recessed panels and
corbeled caps.
At the front, there were two, symmetrically placed
toward each end of the entrance frontispiece.
There were two more on
the south end of the main block.
There were six chimneys on the north
(Fisher Street) side, four on the south side, and five across the rear
(east) of the main block.
Because the flues were located in the

exterior walls, the placement of the chimneys corresponded to spaces
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HABS Ho\ WI-291
(Page 19)
between the window bays, and thus accounted for the irregular pattern of
fenestration on the north wall and the rear elevations.
7. Openings
a. Doorways and Doors: There were at least two
principal entrances, located in the end bays of the frontispiece.
They
were set within tall, round-arched openings, of which there were five
across the front.
All have been filled in, and are obscured by the
porch in historical photographs.
On the north side, near the west end,
was a round-arched entrance of narrow proportions corresponding to the
width of surrounding window bays.
Below this entrance was an entrance
to the basement, with a large slab lintel.
b. Windows: Windows were fitted with six-over-six
double hung sash set in molded wooden frames toward the outer plane of
the wall.
The openings are round-arched, with narrow limestone sills.
The arches are articulated with corbeled voussoirs.
Arches of the first
and second floor windows are further ornamented by an outer ring of
header brick.
At the central bay on the main facade, the second and
third floor windows are paired and slightly taller than those to either
side.- The arches are treated like those of the first and second floors,
but in addition have slightly projecting keystones and are supported on
brick pilasters with corbeled caps and bases.
Basement windows had six-
light sash below shallow segmental limestone arches with flush
keystones.
The kitchen wing featured rectangular window openings
surmounted by slab lintels of limestone.

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HABS No. Wl-291
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3. Roof
a. Shape, Covering: The building has a very shallow
hipped roof which originally had fairly wide eaves. It is covered with
several layers of asbestos shingles and roll sheathing.
b. Cornice, Eaves: The building originally displayed
a wide wooden cornice. The cornice had a horizontal plank frieze and an
architrave molding that was fitted closely around the arches of the
third floor windows. The cornice of the front gable had long, though
partial, returns. Ornamental wooden brackets were placed at intervals
along the cornice on all elevations.
c. Cupola: Originally there was a tall wooden cupola
or belvedere centered on the roof above the frontispiece. It was
rectangular, with a low hipped roof and small triangular pediments on
each side. Each wall of the cupola featured a triptych of round-arched
windows. The center window in each triptych was slightly taller than
the others, and was ornamented at the top with an applied crest. The
cupola is no longer extant, having been replaced with a small gableroofed
structure that is accessieble from an original, interior
staircase to the cupola.
C. Description of Interior
1. Floor plans
a. Basement: The only available information is that
included in a manuscript by Fred Schrader, a former Chicago, Milwaukee,
St. Paul & Pacific employee. Schrader believed there to have been a
saloon located in the northwest corner of the building. He also

mentioned a "special room" in the basement in which the hotel roasted
its own coffee, but provided no specific location. 30
b. First Floor: The first floor of the main block
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HABS No. WI-291
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originally served as a railway passenger depot.
It was divided into
three general areas, the largest, at the center, being a waiting room
and ticket office.
At the south end was a men's card room and saloon,
while a women's parlor was located on the north end.
The main staircase
was located against the parlor wall, accessible from the waiting room.
Approximately two-thirds of the first floor of the wing fronting on
Fisher Street was occupied by a large dining room.
The easternmost
third was partitioned into four small rooms, plus a staircase, according
to the "Plan of Depot Buildings..." of c. 1870.
A Sanborn fire
insurance map of 1905 locates the kitchen in this area, but shows only a
single wall setting off the kitchen from the dining room.
A Sanborn map
of 1912, however, indicates that the kitchen was located in the two-
story pavilion off the south side of the wing.
It is likely that
several rooms were devoted to food preparation and service, as Mrs. Rudy
Opat who worked at the hotel from 1893-1899, recalls both a "dish room"
and a "pastry room" being associated with the kitchen activities.31
c. Second and Third Floors: These floors were used
for hotel accommodations, and contained over fifty rooms.
The rooms, of
varying sizes, were located to each side of central hallways which
opened into a large square space at the re-entrant angle between the
main block and wing.
2. Stairways: As noted above, the main stair was located
toward the north end of the main block.
The only staircase that is

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HABS No. WI-291
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confirmed as original Is that leading from the attic to the cupola.
It
features a simple spindle balustrade, molded railing, and turned newel
post.
3. Flooring: The flooring appears to have been tongue-andgroove
planking approximately four inches wide. Hallways were carpeted,
according to Opat.32
4. Wall and Ceiling Finish: Interior walls were plaster on
sawed lath.
Baseboards in the halls had heavy moldings, but those in
the hotel rooms appear to have been flat.
The room at the southwest
corner of the third floor has an ornate pressed-metal ceiling with
narrow, ornamental coves.
Other rooms have plain plastered ceilings,
and the extent to which they may have been covered with pressed metal is
not known.
5. Openings
a. Doorways and Doors: Doorways on the third floor
have wide, strongly molded architraves and three-light transoms.
Doors
have four vertical recessed panels, the lower pair half the height of
the upper pair. -Panels-of some doors are edged with bolection moldings,
while others are plain.
The doors are hung from plain brass butt
hinges.
At least one, which may have been moved to its present location
in a hall leading to the kill room, retains a simple brass thumb-latch.
b. Windows: Window architraves are rectangular, with
strongly-articulated moldings and deep, molded sills.
The spandrels
between the architrave and the round arch of the window frame are inset
with plain, triangular panels.
Small brass pins located on the inner
edges of the architraves suggest that the windows originally had wooden

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
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shutters that could be drawn across the lower sash.
Natural light
reached the hallways of the upper floors from windows at each end, and
through the transom lights over the room doors.
6. Decorative Features and Trim: No additional
information.
7. Hardware: Almost entirely removed, except for simple
brass catches on window sash, and shutter hinges.
8. Mechanical Equipment
a. Heating, Air Conditioning, Ventilation: Hotel
rooms were heated by coal stoves as indicated by flue openings for
stovepipes in several rooms.
Ventilation was obtained from opening
windows and also by circulation across door transoms.
b. Lighting: No original fixtures extant.
c. Plumbing: Fred Schrader provided the following
description of sanitation facilities in a typescript dated 1957:
There
was a "battery of old-fashioned toilets which lined the hallway on each
floor.
Each deck of toilets were off-set like a stairway and the waste
from each section dropped down, an open shaft into a huge funnel-shaped
pit in the basement.
The rain water from the main roof was directed
into this funnel-shaped pit, to wash away the sewage into the river.
These toilets necessitated the hiring of chamber-maids who took care of
all chambers from each room."33
9. Furnishings: No information available.

Dousman Hotel
HABS No, WT-291
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D. Site
1. General Setting: The hotel faces west, across two lines
of railroad track and Water Street, toward the Mississippi River.
The
river bank, formerly a steamboat and ferry landing, is now landscaped as
a public park.
To the south is the former "emigrant" depot, a one-story
structure with side-gable roof and large pendant brackets supporting
very wide eaves.
To the southeast is a long, low stone wall which is
the remains of a large freight warehouse which originally served both
steamboats and the railroad.
North of the hotel, across Fisher Street,
is the Elizabeth Rolette House, a two-story, side-gable frame dwelling
built in 1842.
The Rolette House appears to have been moved to this
location, as the limestone foundation is larger than the house.
Indeed,
according to the 1912 Sanborn map, the Tremont House Hotel was once
located here.
This establishment, first opened in 1826-27 and
subsequently enlarged by H. Baldwin, was probably by virtue of its
location, the Dousman Hotel's chief competitor.34 Photographs dated c.
1906 show a sizeable, two-story building with round-arched windows at
this location. (See HABS photographs WI-291-29 and WI-291-30.) North
of the Rolette House are the Brisbois House (1837) and the former
American Fur Company warehouse (1829), both of limestone construction.
Beyond these lies the Dousman family complex, dominated by a large
Italianate dwelling built c. 1870 for the widow of Hercules Dousman.
Inland from North Second Street, most buildings once located here have
been torn down or relocated, as the area is now a flood-control zone.
A
handful of nineteenth century frame buildings, plus a two-story log
house, remain.

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
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2. landscape Design: None.
3. Outbuildings: None extant. Schrader reported that a
"large horse barn" was located "adjoining the street on the east side of
the big yard," which places it either on Water Street, east of the rail
yard, or perhaps east of the hotel on Fisher or Second Streets.35

Dousman Hotel
HA8S Ho. WI-291
(Page 26)
FOOTNOTES
29 Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 10 October 1864, reprinted in Prairie
du Chien courier, Z4 October 1364.
30 Schrader, "A History of Dousman Hotel." There is no information
available regarding dates of Schrader's employment by the railroad.
31 Interview with Mrs. Ruby Opat, 20 March 1957.
32 Ibid.
33 Schrader, "A History of Dousman Hotel."
34 History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin
(Springneia, II_: union Publishing company, L1884J), p. s^.
3 5. ibid.

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 27)
III. Sources of Information
A. Architectural Drawings: "Plan of Depot Buildings at Prairie
du Chien," ink and colored wash on paper, c. 1870, State Historical
Society of Wisconsin.
B. Historical photographs, from collections of the State
Historical Society of Wisconsin:
- DOUSMAN HOUSE SEEN FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
(Neg. # WHI(x3)40382) About 1900-05.
- DOUSMAN HOUSE
(Neg. # WHI(x3)40381) About 1906.
- DOUSMAN HOTEL, BACKGROUND
(Neg. # WHI(C76)215) About 1916.
- DOUSMAN HOTEL DURING HIGH WATER IN THE SPRING
(Neg. # WHI(C76)210) 1916.
- DOUSMAN HOTEL, BUILT ABOUT 1862
(Neg. # WHI(x3)18585) About 1925.
- DOUSMAN HOTEL
(Neg. # WHI(x313)2738) About 1930.
- RAILROAD PLAN. ORIGINAL FILED AS 7-146
(Neg. # WHI(x3)40388) About 1870.
Copies of these historic photographs have been included with the
submission of this report to the Historic American Buildings Survey.
C. Bibliography
1, Primary and Unpublished Sources
Crawford County Deeds, Crawford County Courthouse, Prairie
du Chien, Wisconsin.

Dousman Hotel
HABS NO. WI-291
(Page 28)
Opat, Mrs. Rudy. Tape-recorded interview 20 March 1957 at
Prairie du Chien, State Historical Society of
Wisconsin.
Schrader, Fred A. "A History of Dousman Hotel," State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, [19573.
(Typewritten.)
2. Secondary and Published Sources
Bowers, M.H. National Register nomination form for Burtis-
Kimball Hotel, Iowa Office of Historic Preservation,
January 1979.
Brunson, Alfred. Prairie du Chien: Its Present and Future
Prospects. Milwaukee: Daily Sentinel Steam Power
Press, 1857.
Evans, Constance M. Prairie du Chien and the Winneshiek.
Privately Printed, 1928. '
Graeme, Lucy Beall. National Register nomination form for
Ogden Hotel, Iowa Office of Historic Preservation,
[1976].
Gregory, John G. (ed.). Southwestern Wisconsin: A History
of Old Crawford County. Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1932.
History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin.
Springfield: Union Publishing Co.,1884.
Merk, Frederick. Economic History of Wisconsin During the *
Civil War Decade. Madison: State Historical Society
of Wisconsin, 1916. '" . J
Meyer, Balthasar H. "A History of Railroad Legislation in
Wisconsin," Wisconsin Historical Collections XIV, pp.
206-300.

Dousraan Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 29)
Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 10 October 1864.
Ogle, George A. Standard Atlas of Crawford County,
Wisconsin. Chicago: George A. Ogle & Co., 1901-02.
"Prairie's Dousman Hotel Stands Idle Once Again," Dubuque
Telegraph-Herald, 3 September 1952.
Prairie du Chien Courier, 6 August 1863; 12, 19, 26 May
1864; 9, 16, 23 June 1864; 27 October 1864; 4 May
1865; 4 April 1939; 6, 13 June 1939; 11 July 1939; 29
August 1939; 27 February 1940; 5 March 1940; 10
September 1952.
Raney, William F. Wisconsin: A Story of Progress. New
York: Prentice-Hall, 1940.
Ruger and Stoner. Prairie du Chien, Crawford County,
Wisconsin. Madison: Ruger & Stoner, 1870 (Bird's Eye
View),
Sanborn-Perris Map Company. Fire insurance maps of Prairie
du Chien 1905, 1912, 1924.
Scanlan Peter L. Prairie du Chien: French, British,
American. Menasha, WI: Geo. Banta Publishing Co.,
1937.
Schroer, Blanche Higgins. National Register of Historic
Places nomination form for Dousman Hotel, State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, no date.
Tuttle, Charles R. An Illustrated History of the State of
Wisconsin. Boston: B.B. Russell, 1875.
Young, Violet D. Illustrated Handbook of the Historic Home
of Hercules Dousman. Privately printed, 1936.

Dousman Hotel
HABS No. WI-291
(Page 30)
Zeitlin, Richard H. Prairie du Chien: Urban Consolidation
and Decline 1858-1930. St. Paul: U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, St. Paul District [1981],
D. Likely Sources Not Yet Investigated
-Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien Railway Company, Annual
Reports 1861-66. These are listed in the card catalogue of
the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Library, but could
not be located even with the assistance of a librarian.
IV.
Project Information
The Dousman Hotel was recorded for the National Park Service,
Rocky Mountain Region, in November and December of 1983, by Dennett,
Muessig, Ryan S Associates, Ltd,
The field measuring crew was headed by
Hans Muessig, and included Marie A. Neubauer and Angela Schiller. J
Ceronie and Robert A. Ryan were the project photographers, and Martha H.
Bowers served as the historian/architectural historian.
report preparation were provided by Phyllis A. Stiefel.
Editing and
Bruce A. Harms
assisted with photographic laboratory services.
The drawing set was
produced from field measurements, and was delineated by Marie A.
Neubauer.